Canaries Can’t Complete Comeback

SIOUX FALLS, SD — The Sioux Falls Canaries belted two home runs, but five Sioux City Explorers runs in the first five innings proved to be too much to overcome in a 5-4 loss before 3,329 fans Saturday night at The Birdcage.

Sioux City (3-0) has won the first three games of the season-opening, four-game series.

Trailing 5-0 with just two hits on the board, the Canaries finally got to Sioux City starter Andy Noga (1-0) in the bottom of the sixth inning. Nick Van Stratten walked to lead off the inning, and J.P. Ramirez followed with a two-run home run to right field, making it 5-2.

John Alonso reached on an error, and Jared Clark followed with a homer of his own, cutting the Sioux City lead to 5-4. The round-trippers were the first two of the year for the Canaries.

But Sioux Falls (0-3) would get no closer as the Explorers bullpen gave up nothing more. Chris Bodishbaugh notched his third save in as many days with a perfect ninth inning.

Noga earned the win in his professional debut. He surrendered four runs, three earned, in 5 1/3 innings. He also walked a batter and fanned three.

The Explorers got out of the gate in a hurry with two runs in the top of the first. Eliezer Mesa led off with a double and scored on an RBI single by Yusuke Inoguchi. Inoguchi scored the second run on an RBI double off the bat of Peter Barrows.

Sioux City (3-0) plated another run in the second when Anthony Kaskadden scored on Mesa’s RBI base hit. The Explorers extended the lead to 3-0 in the third when Leugim Barosso tripled and scored on Alberto Espinosa’s hit.

Sioux City tallied its final run in the fifth when Inoguchi led off with a single, advanced to second on a fielder’s choice and scored on Barrows’s single. After five innings the Explorers led 5-0.

Sioux Falls starter Adam Champion (0-1) made his Canaries debut and pitched six innings, giving up ten hits and five runs while striking out two.

Mesa went 2-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored, and Barrows had a single, an RBI double, and a triple for Sioux City. Mesa is 5-for-12 in the series. Ramirez and Clark were the offensive leaders for the Canaries with two RBI each.

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